Disneyland Inside Out for iPhone is imrlabs latest mobile project, bringing content from the popular Disneyland Inside Out web site to users on the Apple iPhone devices. This project let us dig deep into the world of iPhone development, linking RESTful web services to a rich native client. This App provides a deep connection to Facebook and Gowalla, along with a direct connection to the content managed on the web through DotNetNuke.

RESTful Web Services

As park of this project imrlabs exposed much of the data for the mobile app through RESTful web services over JSON.  The goal here was not to embed content in the app, but allow users always to receive the most up-to-date information directly from the web.  If the web site updated content, then the app is updated as well.  In order to accommodate iPod Touch users, and the fact that users in Disneyland don’t always have the greatest signal, caching is also employed.  Here, through a paid upgrade, users and “sync” all the information available across the app for use offline.

Social Integration

An important aspect of any modern app is to provide direct integration with social networks such as Facebook.  Here users can login directly through the app, and can optionally post status updates to Facebook when they submit a wait time for a Disneyland attraction, or when they submit a review.  Facebook friends lists are also used so a user can view the activity of their friends who also are logged into the app.

For the Disneyland Inside Out project imrlabs also provided deep integration with Gowalla, who during App development, announced a partnership with Disney for location based check-ins at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.  This announcement became a natural fit for inclusion in the app.

Server Side

In order to make an app like this successful, a strong server component is key.  imrlabs was responsible for the development of all the server technologies as well.  Here backend algorithms are used to filter submissions from users for content.  Updates for content within the App are combined from various sources around the web and a detailed algorithm was built to estimate attraction wait times.

Custom Skin Development

The IHC staff provided a PSD (Photoshop) file of the final design for the web site.  We then took and sliced up the graphics and created an HTML based skin for use in DNN.  Working with their staff we created a flexible, single template, that is used for the various layouts around the site.  The HTML & CSS were also designed in a way that allows their staff to quickly make a few tweaks and completely change the look of the site.

Small Groups Module

The church needed a way to integrate their small group data stored in Group Finder directly with the web site.  Since there were not API’s through Group Finder we built out a custom module that imported a csv file generated by the Group Finder web site and imported that data directly into the IHC site.  This minimized the amount of work needed to update the information.  In between bulk imports of data church staff could also manually update small changes directly through our custom module.

Staff Contact Module

We also built out a custom contact module for the Staff page.  This module allowed for photos of staff to be connect with their name, phone number and hidden in the background, their e-mail address.  It was important for the church not to have any e-mail addresses listed on their pages to reduce spam through their e-mail system.  This module hides the e-mail addresses, but allows for web users to contact staff members directly.

Social Media

While not a primary focus of the redesign, we also helped their communication staff establish a presence on both Twitter and Facebook.  The web site showcases links to these various media

Disneyland Inside Out has been online in various forms since 1996.  imrlabs recently had the opportunity to update the site and migrate it to DotNetNuke for content management.  This project also involved creating numerous custom modules that integrated directly with the server work that was completed for the Disneyland Inside Out for iPhone project.

DotNetNuke Migration

imrlabs was responsible for the graphic design and custom skin creation for the new Disneyland Inside Out web site.  This consisted of work in Photoshop, with the subsequent conversion of the graphics to HTML & CSS for the DotNetNuke skin file.  The entire layout is a modern CSS based design.  Content itself is carefully crafted, and also heavily styled through CSS.  This was important in the design as  much of the same information is used between the web site and mobile platforms, as each much provide the user with the experience they are expecting in that respective context.

Custom Module Development

Large components of the new site were heavily based upon a custom tagging and database system developed for the Disneyland Inside Out mobile platform.  imrlabs built the custom modules that interface with this database system to display content to web users.  As backend management component was also built that allows for custom content management of information that displays on both the web site and in the mobile applications.

SEO

As part of this project we also provided an overlay on top of DotNetNuke to enhance the search engine optimization of urls and content throughout the site.  Through the use of custom modules and IIS settings, all default DNN urls are masked with more friendly and user readable URLs.  Since the site was also moving domain names, numerous redirect features were also put in place to help encourage the various search engines to update their indexes.  A custom site map module was also developed to take advantage of and provide these updated SEO optimized urls to the search engines.

Social Integration

Disneyland Inside Out also required deep integration with various social networks.  Throughout the site web provided deep integration with Facebook, leveraging their social plug-ins.  Many pages also implement the Facebook Open Graph protocol, to provide users with a rich “Like” experience when liking content on Disneyland Inside Out.  The portal news management component was also built to provide automatic posting of content to Facebook and Twitter.  Twitter posts are automatically shortened to the 140 characters, and links are automatically shortened with bit.ly’s public APIs.